[Mouth opening 47mm - Weight 54kg]
Woke up early... it was snowing heavily... it's strange to have such amount of snow late March in Rotterdam. Even in the midst of winter it is not very common to have so much snow up here. I showered & washed my hair & brushed my teeth as clean as possible. Put on some moisturizer, write down everything (computer stuff, phone numbers, etc - just in case) for my parents then off we went. We arrived at the hospital just before 9 o'clock. Went up to the 3rd floor where I’ll be staying. I fill up this form together with an orderly, a nice funny guy with glasses. I was shown my bed and locker... and was told that tonight I won't stay in that room, but in the ICU on the 8th floor so they can monitor my breathing. While I was waiting I talked to two other patients in my room, a guy staying for heart condition and a lady for psoriasis or something. Then I chatted with my parents. I was excited, curious and a bit nervous. On the top of it, I was hungry. I've not eaten in the past 12 hours.

I changed to my hospital gown around 11 o'clock... and that orderly wheeled my bed to the preparation room sometime around midday. I then had to move to a gurney. I was given 2 heated blankets. Then they did some preparations in a small sterile room. First they put me on an automatic blood pressure measurement, followed by IV. The nurse did a quick check up, asked some question, and then she left. A couple minutes later I was wheeled to the OR. There were some x-rays on the wall. I thought I saw my surgeons were scrubbing in the next room, but not so sure. I scoot to OR table, which was surprisingly quite comfy. They reposition and wrapped me with warm blankets, and then they put some metal things next to my upper arms. The anesthesiologist talked to me about what he is going to do to put me into sleep. After hearing some jokes I was out just before 1 o'clock.

Next thing I knew...
I was wired shut and already in the recovery room.

It was fuzzy. I remember opening my eyes for a sec. I heard one of the nurse said "She's awake". But I couldn't keep my eyes open. By then the breathing tube was already taken out. Still no pain.

The next time I opened my eyes, I was in ICU at least that is what I thought it was. I had so much pain in my right face, I figured it was from the extraction. There were a couple of ladies around my bed. They, of course, introduced themselves to me… but I didn't pay much attention. All I wanted and needed at that point was PAIN KILLER. I told them I was in pain. One of them gave me an injection, later I found out that it was morphine. I didn’t care what it was, but it surely worked. The pain was gone… I felt drowsy.

Dr. van den Broek came by and woke me up. He informed me that I actually at the cardiology wing, since the ICU was full. I told him about the pain. He acknowledged my suspicion, there was bleeding when they did the extraction. Other than that the surgery went well. He let me sleep some more and left.

I heard my mom's and my friends' voices! I woke up and saw my parents on my left and my friends Tauhan, Andi, Vinia and Riyana on my right. As I was laying there with ice pack around my face, IV and heart monitor attached to my body, and they were teasing me! I couldn't really talk, so I just grumbled a bit. However, I enjoyed their visit. After they left, uncle Christ & aunt Sila came by and brought a long some lovely tulps (I'm in Holland and am getting tulps:)). He pointed out that I had some dry blood on the corner of my lips. They didn't stay long, so I slept more.. and more.

I woke up a couple of times during the night. I was coughing a lot and it scared the hell out of me. Remember, I was wired shut. I was afraid that I choked by the mucus & blood, not that I can taste them The next day anyway. One thing that I still couldn't figure it out was the time one of the nurses gave anti blood clotting into my IV. I thought blood should clot after surgery. Any idea why?

I had trouble the first time I had to pee. The fact that the nurse kept on asking if I've done it, did't help at all. It took me about twenty minutes to finally do it! Talk about discomfort!

The next day
I was already awake when a male nurse asked me if I want to have sponge bath. Of course I did. There were times last night I felt so warm, and I was sweating a couple of times. "So, do you want me to give you a bath, or do you want to do it yourself?" Huh?? I preferred the latter. He went out and came back again saying he was going to ask one of his colleague to help me. A couple minutes later came a nurse to help me clean myself.

The breakfast came; I didn't feel like eating anything. There is a cup of clear broth, a cup of custard, and something else I had no idea what it was. I only drank the juice.

Some doctors came by, followed by other doctors, and other doctors. One of them is the cute Internist I met last month. They all introduced themselves, asking questions, checking my chart and then left.

By midday they wheeled my bed to my room down on the 3rd floor. As soon as I got there, I went to pee in the proper loo. It was the first time I saw myself in the mirror. What a shock! I was flabbergasted! It was huge… especially the right cheek, if I can still call it cheek. It is as if you put on 10 kilo's on your face. My face also looked darker from bruises. As if it wasn't enough, my nose bled as I lower my face a bit while I grab some napkins, quickly I turned upward. I remember thinking, "What have you done to yourself?" During my preparation I kept imagining how swollen my face would be, but seeing the reality is some thing else. I thought I was ready to see my face. But I could not say that I was not astonished at that moment.

Back in my room, I tried to read but I couldn't focus my eyes. I was really awake, so I chatted (and/or wrote down) a bit with one of my roommates, the on with psoriasis. My nose bled once more, I felt nothing. My roommate had to point that out for me.

The surgeon checked on me in the afternoon. He encouraged me to talk more instead of writing things down. "You are not sick; you just had a surgery, so you can do whatever you want. I see you tomorrow at the policlinic." he said that before he left. The nurse made me move around. "It is good for you". I walked to nurse station, followed by a trip to dayroom. There are some people watching TV, I picked some magazines with lots of pictures in it and went back to the nurse station. As I stand in front of the nurse station I heard my mom saying to my dad, "Where is she? She's not in her room. O, there she is! I thought it was her, I recognize the pj!". Can you imagine, my own mother couldn't believe it was me standing there! And if it's not for the pj's I am wearing, I don't think she recognized me.

My friends came a couple minutes later. We chatted, or should I say they chatted along and I mostly wrote things down and sometimes talked. Talking was tiring.

The third day in the hospital
I slept a little last night, still coughing and had to go to the loo for a couple of times during the night. I managed to drink cold water and some juices using straw and a bit of custard using syringe yesterday. I was still on IV.

I showered and dress myself. I had some juices for breakfast. I walked about a little then I tried to play something on my palm. Finally a nurse took me to the Policlinic. First, they took panoramic x-ray. Then, I was shown to one of the room and waited for the surgeon. He came in with x-ray in his hand. Everything looked good. I didn’t have trouble breathing, I had no pain. He asked, "Would you like to go home?" I thought about it for a minute, "Could I?" I asked him back. He didn't see why I should be in the hospital. Besides, you can get infected with any kind of infection -MRSA come to my mind- in hospital. So he gave me clearance and prescription of Hydrogen monoxides. And Oh, I wasn't put on any special diet. As long as I eat properly I don't need any special diet.

Went up to my room, I packed up my stuff and trying to get hold of my parents. They were no where to be found! I called up my place, my cell phone, and my dad’s cell phone: no answer. I called up my friends place and cell phone, also no answer. Hm... where is everybody? I leave messages every where.
Mr. Wizard, Get me the hell out of here!

So there I was, all packed and ready to go... but nobody's around. I played some game on my palm again, then did my rounds. At the end of the afternoon my parents along with Andi and Vinia came. Yippee… Said goodbye and thanking everybody, the nurses reminded me to drink plenty of liquid and eat a lot.

PS: The same trousers I wore when I arrived on Wednesday were by then too big for me. I lost about 4or 5 kilo's in two days. I told you, it's easy for me to lose weight.